Off-road and general purpose vehicles such as, for instance, pickup trucks, Jeeps®, and SUV's, oftentimes are operated in off-road locations in addition to being driven on paved roads and highways. During off-road activity, it is common for the interior of such a vehicle to become wet, muddy, or soiled as a result of off-road conditions. In particular, the floorboards or floor wells commonly become soiled by occupants placing wet and muddy shoes in the floor wells as a consequence, for example, of having walked across wet, snowy, or muddy ground prior to entering the vehicle. This often results in liquid such as water, mud, and/or slush accumulating on the floor mats and floor trays that commonly are positioned in the floor wells to protect underlying carpet and other surfaces. As the vehicle rapidly accelerates and decelerates, or is driven up or down hills, or is severely jostled during normal and off-road use, the accumulated liquid has a tendency to slosh around within the floor trays in which it has collected, which can cause irritating problems. For instance, when the liquid sloshes to the forward end of a driver's or passenger's floor tray during a stop or a down hill traverse, it can form a relatively deep puddle, which can re-soil shoes, create slippery conditions, or even overflow the edges of the floor tray to soil the protected surface beneath.
One attempt to address the above and other problems has been the so-called deep tread or deep rib floor tray. Deep rib floor trays generally are molded with raised treads on their upper surface that are substantially taller than the treads of traditional floor mats. These treads, then, form between them a series of channels that also are substantially deeper than channels of traditional floor mats. The idea is that water, mud, and slush that might accumulate on the floor tray will collect in the deep channels and, even through it may slosh around, hopefully it will not form puddles deeper than the channels themselves and therefore will not re-soil shoes or overflow the tray. While previous deep rib floor mats have been somewhat successful, water, mud, and slush nevertheless still can overflow the channels as it sloshes to one side of the tray or another to soil shoes and, indeed, can even overflow the trays themselves. In fact, some prior art floor trays have treads that define channels all extending primarily in a single direction, which actually can promote flow and sloshing of liquid in that direction. A need exists for a floor tray that successfully contains and controls the movement of water, mud, and slush that may collect in the floor tray.
It also is common, particularly in modern vehicles, that floor trays and floor mats are held in place in the floor well by one or more anchor hooks that project upwardly from the floor well to extend through corresponding eyelets or other openings formed in the floor mats. While this can be successful at securing the floor mats in place, it obviously also creates an opening in the floor mat. For vehicles, such as automobiles, that are not used in off-road conditions, this opening does not generally present a problem because the floor mats of such vehicles generally are not subjected to collected water, mud, and slush. However, for off-road vehicles such as Jeeps®, water, mud, and slush can leak through the eyelets or openings and onto the carpet or other protected surface beneath. Obviously, this severely compromises the very purpose of the floor tray to protect the often carpeted surface of the floor well from being soiled or ruined. Eliminating the openings is not generally an option because the floor tray will then simply lie atop the upstanding anchor hooks forming a bump in the tray and, without the benefit of the hooks, may not remain in place within the floor well. A need thus exists for a deep rib floor tray that accommodates and makes use of anchor hooks without the risk of liquid leaking through to the protected floor will below.
Prior deep rib floor mats also can exhibit a problem related to the fact that the channels between the upstanding ribs are in fact substantially deeper than normal. More specifically, some drivers have noted that during normal operation of the accelerator, brake, and clutch pedals, the heel of the shoe can become temporarily lodged within a channel between ribs. Not only can this be a nuisance, it also can represent a safety issue, particularly during off-road driving where rapid switching between and manipulation of pedals is common. There also exists a need, therefore, for a deep rib floor tray that minimizes or eliminates the tendency for a driver's shoe to become lodged between the ribs of the tray.